Excavating-machine.



L. A. KRUPP.

EXOAVATING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED APR. 14, 1911.

1,043, 1 13. Patented Nov. 5, 1912;

4 SHEETSSHEET 1.

L. A. KRUPP.

EXOAVATING MACHINE,

' APPLICATION FILED APR.14, 1911. 1,043 113,; Patented N0v.5,1912

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

I I ITNESiE V I INVENTOF! L. A. KRUPP. BXOAVATING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 14, 1911.

4 SHEETSSHEET 3.

Patented Nov. 5, 1912.

i Nm 1 WITNESSE 7 1 l L. A. KRUPP.

EXOAVATING MAGHINEv APPLICATION FILED APR.14, 1911.

Patented Nov, 5, 1912.

4 SEEETS-SHEET 4,

unirnn' STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEO ALBERT KRUPP, 0F CAREY, OHIO, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO PEAT INDUSTRIES, LIMITED, OF MONTREAL, CANADA, A CORPORATION OF CANADA.

EXo vATIN -MAoHI'NE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 5, 1912.

Application filed April 14, 1911. Serial No. 621,125.

n) all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEO A. Knurr, a citizen of the United States, residing at Carey, county of Wyandot, State of Ohio, have in vented a certain new and useful Improvement in Excavating-Machines, and declare the following to be a full, clear, and'exact (loser-nation of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being emptied when they reach the discharge point. In accordance with my invention I provide means for automatically clearing the buckets of their contents when the discharge point is reached and therefore my invention. viewed in a further aspect, may be regarded as relating to improved discharging means for excavator buckets.

I support the endless chain of buckets in such a manner that the entire chain may be swung through a considerable angle about a vertical axis, thus pcri'nitting a path much wider than asingle bucket to be excavated without changing the lateral position of the carriage; and therefore my invention, viewed in a further aspect, may be regarded as comprising an improved apparatus adapted to cut a path of great width.

The various features of novelty wl'icreb my invention is characterized will hereinafter be pointed out with partitailarity in the claims: but, for a full uiulerstanding of my invention and of its object and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings. wherein:

Figure l is a side elevation of the rear,

portion of an excavating machine arranged in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2 is a plan view of thc parts shown in Fig. 1, one position of the main boom being shown in full. lines and another position in dotted lines; Fig. 3 is a plan view on a larger scale of the pivoted end of the boom and a portion of the'chain of excavator buckets; Fig. 4- is a side view of the parts shown in Fig. 3; F 5 is a section on an enlarged scale on line 55 of Fig. i; and Fig. 6 is a perspective view of one of the buckets.

Referring to the drawings, 1 represents a movable carriage of any suitable construction. At the real-thereof is a suitable crane 2 pivoted so as to swing about a vertical axis. In the arrangel'nent shown, (see Fig. 2) the crane is provided with suitable Outriggers 3' ,to the extremities of which are connected blocks and tackles 4 actuated by drums 5 revolubly mount-ed upon the carriage. I

6 is a power shaft adapted to be connected to either of the drums through clutches 7.

Upon the crane is mounted a boom 8 adapted to swing about a horizontal axis. The boom is adapted to carry the excavating luicl ets and it may be raised and lowered to adjust the depth to which a cut will be made. In the arrangement shown there is a bail. 9 secured to the boom near the outer end, and'a cable 10, passing over pulleys 11 and 12 mounted respectively on the bail and at the upper end of the crane, serves to raise and lower the boom. The cable 10 may be actuated in any suitable way as, for ex ample, by means of a drum 13 to which its inner end is connected.

All of the parts heretofore described may take any usual or n'efcrrcdforms since the only feature of my invention thus far dc-.

wane may conveniently take the form of a shaft 14- passing through the inner end of the boom and rovolubly supported in bear ings 15 on the crane. By allowing the shaft 1.4 to run freely in the boom, it may also be made to serve as the driving inembcinfor the chain of buckets and the automatic cleaner to be hereinafter described To this end the shaft 14 is provided with two sprocket wheels 16 spaced apart somewhatglessthan thewidt-h of theboom. At the free end of the boom are similar and similarly spaced sprocket wheels 17, thus making'provision for driving two endless chainf'members which extend longitudinally about ,the boom. Q I I Inaccordancewith my invention I make use of excavator buckets of peculiar con-- struotion. The construction of the buckets is perhaps most clearly illustrated in Fig. 6. Each bucket consists of two" sheet metal sides 18 and a back 19, thus leaving the bucket open at-the top, at the botto m and at the trout. The two side members of the bucket are tied together by means of a U- shaped cutting member'QO, the armsof Whichare riveted or otherwise secured to.

bucket and its other end between the corre sponding bar and the adjacent side-of the next bucket. In this way I produce an endless chain of buckets which consists of two separated sprocket chains on which the buckets are hung, the sides of the buckets forming parts of the sprocket chains. .;.llie bars 21 are spaced apart from thesides ot' the buckets far enough to permit the sprocket wheels 16 and 1 to enter the space between the bars and the sides of the buckets, the parts being so proportioned that the actual driving is eiiccted through the chain sections 22.

Along the npperside of the boom are two parallel tracks 23 conveniently made of angle irons each of which has one flange extending horizontally and the other flange extending vertically. On the underside of the boom are two double tracks 24L, these being conveniently'made of channel irons. The endless chain of buckets is supported on the tracks by means of shoes 25 which project laterally from the sides of the buckets at the tops thereof. These shoes may conveniently consist of blocks of. .wood shaped to fit into the channel-iron tracks on the underside of the boom, the shoes on that portion of the chain which lies above the boom simply resting upon the tracks 23. It will thus be seen thatthe buckets are firmly supported while they remain on the undering the excavating processes.

side of the boom and must follow a. given path when the driving power is applied. Since the shoes project out beyond the sides of the buckets, some provision must be made forfatt'ording-a clearance for the shoes dill? This may conveniently 'be done by providing the buckets with auxiliary cutting blades 26 which 'are secured to the sides at the front ends of the buckets and project forwardly and outwardly, the flare of theauxiliary cutting blades being sutficient to carry them out beyond the planes of the shoesfi Thebuckets are intended to excavate and become filled while they travel on the underside of the boom and therefore some means must be providcd'for preventing the contents from dropping through the open'bottoms as soon as the buckets rise above the level of the material in which the excavation is taking place. To this end I provide a stationary shield 27 on the underside of the boom, this shield being spaced far enough apart from the boom to lie close to the bottoms of the buckets as they pass along the boom and prevent the contents of the buckets from dropping out before the discharge point is reached. The shield may take the form of a lat metal plate or a shallow channel and is suspended from suitable hangers 28 extending downwardly from the boom. The point at whiclrthe shield must become operative varies with the depth to which the cut is being made and therefore I prefer to provide the shield with an extensible section 29 (see Figs. 4 and 5) the member 29 overlapping the outer end of the main portion of the shield and being adjustably connected thereto so that it may be slid in and out to vary the effective length of the shield. In the arrangement shown the extensible section is held in place by means of one or more bolts 30 extending down from the member 29 through a slot 31 in the tixed portion of the shield. It will of course be understood, however, that other fastening means may be employed. The shield terminates just before the inner end of the boom is reached and at this point the contents of the buckets are discharged.- In the arrangement shown, there is a conveyor 32 which extends into proximity to the inner end of the shield for the purpose of receiving the excavated material from the buckets. It will of course be understood, however, that the contents of the buckets may be disposed of in any suitable manner.

As I have heretofore stated, peat is wet and sticky and some of the contents of the buckets will remain in the buckets if gravity alone is relied upon for effecting the discharge when the discharge point is reached. In order to make the discharge of the contents of the buckets certain and positive I have provided apower driven ejector which takes the form of a double-ended paddle 33 secured to the shaft 14. between the sprocket wheels 16. The parts are so proportioned and adjusted that as each bucket approaches the sprocket wheel 16, one of the paddles descends into the top of the bucket and, as the bucket travels around the sprocket wheel the paddle passes into and through the bucket, pushing the contents positively through the bottom. In Fig. .4 one of the buckets is shown as having almost completed its travel around the sprocketwheels and one of the paddles now projects entirely through the bucket. The succeeding bucket is just coming into engagement with the sprocket wheels and the other paddle is just about: to descend into this bucket. It will thus be seen that as the buckets travel around thesprocket wheels the paddles sweep clear through the same and insure a complete discharge of their contents.

The shaft 14- may be driven in any suitable manner. In the arrangement shown, the shaft is provided at one end with a gear wheel 34 which meshes with a pinion 35 carried by a counter shaft mounted on the crane. The counter-shaft is; geared to a second counter-shaft 36 mounted upon the crane near the base thereof, the gearing between the two counter-shafts conveniently taking the form of a sprocket chain 37. At the pivotal axis of the crane is a horizontal bevel gear which meshes with a pinion 39 on the shaft The gear 38 maybe driven by a driving gear 40 mounted. upon the end of a suitable shaft 41. The shaft il may be mounted in stationary bearings on the carriage without interfering with the driving connection between the members 38 and 40 when the crane swung about its axis.

The operation of my apparatus will now be understood. The excavating devices are arranged in rear of the carriage so that-the carriage is not required to run over areas from which material has just been excaated. Consequently the width of the path which is cut does not depend upon the width of the carriage and is limited only by the length and the sweep which it is practicable to give to theboom. To begin anexcavation: the apparatus is moved to the starting point; the boom is swung laterally to one boundary of the ditch or path to be excavated; the chain of buckets is set in 'opeiation; and the boom islowered until the buckets cut to a depth of about a foot. The crane is then set in motion,.slowl v sweeping the boom across the path to be cut until the opposite side is reached. When an initia'l rut has been completed, the boom is. again lowered and started back toward the opside. In this way the boom is swung back and forth, being lowered at each limit of its inovement, until the excavation has proceeded to the desired depth as indicated in Fig. l. Thereafter no'change is made in the vertical position 'of the boom, it being simply swung back and forth in the transverse direction; the apparatus being moved forward the proper distance for a new cut at the end of each swinging movement of the boom. It will. be seen that after the buckets leave the face of the. inclined bank 42 they pass above the shield and their contents are prevented from dropping out through the open bottoms. When a bucket reaches the upper end of the shield, one of the automatic cleaning paddles enters the same and its contents are discharged upon the conveyor 32 which carries the excavated material to any desired point.

It will thus be seen that I have produced a simple and novel apparatus for excavating peat, or other material which is not too hard, rapidly and economically, making it possible to excavate to any desired. depth and across a. path of considerable width while the apparatus travels straight ahead.

lVhile I have illustrated and described only a single embodiment of my invention in which all of the various novel features are combined, and have referred to it generally as a peat excavator, I do not desire to limit myself to the specific structural de tails thus illustrated and described, or to an apparatus which necessarily contains every novel feature, or to an apparatus adapted solely for excavating peat, but intend to cover all constructions and arrangements which fall within the terms employed in the definitions of my invention constituting the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an excavating machine, an endless chain of buckets open at the top and at the bottom, an adjustable support for said buckets, a shield lying below the lower member of said chain to close the bottoms of the buckets duri their travel across the shield, a rotary pa ldlc arranged at one end of the shield and ada ted to enter the buckets and swung entirely through them from the top through the bottom when they reach that end of the shield and positively discharge'their contents, and means for actuating said chain and said paddle so as to bring the paddle intoopenative relation to each of the buckets as it. reaches the aforesaid end of the shield.

2. Inan excavating machine, a swinging boom, an endless chain of buckets extending longitudinally of the boom and passing around the free end thereof, two sprocket wheels at each end of the boom, each set of sprocket wheels being spaced apart a distance slightly less than the width of the buckets, said chain of buckets consisting of bucket members each having secured 1.115011 7 In testimony whereof, I sign this specifitlie insidef thereof gwiio longitudinal bars cation, in the presence of two WiiTUQSSQS. separated a1- enpu' from the sides to perw j ijc the passage oi t'he sprocket Wheels te- E ALBIJRT IXRU} 5 gether with sprecket chain sections c0n- Witnessesm neeted-atitheipends;bet-Ween said bars and HAS. BOSWELL, the sides of th eIbhekets. O.-F. BEEKER. 

